Timeline: Purdue's courtship of Hazell a whirlwind affair

Dec. 7, 2012

Darrell Hazell fields questions from the media after being announced as Purdue University's new head football coach Wednesday, December 5, 2012, at Mackey Arena. In the background is Purdue University Interim President Tim Sands. / John Terhune/Journal & Courier

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• Hazell said he spoke with Purdue three times. The first phone call came Nov. 28, two days before Kent State played Northern Illinois in the Mid-American Conference championship game. The Golden Flashes lost in double overtime.

“I said I didn’t want to do anything before the championship game,” Hazell said.

The group left the Purdue airport at 1:01 p.m. and landed at the Akron-Canton Airport at 1:43 p.m., according to flightaware.com. Burke and his team met with Hazell in an airport conference room. They landed in West Lafayette at 5:26 p.m.

“Spent Monday night with my team, addressing the various candidates — what we liked, what we didn’t,” Burke said.

• Burke sent Hazell a text message on Tuesday morning, telling the 48-year-old he wanted to talk again.

“I do text,” Burke joked.

Burke talked to Hazell about 10:30. The conversation lasted between 60 and 90 minutes. Burke spoke with former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel before talking to Hazell. The two talked again following Burke’s call to Hazell.

Hazell also talked to Tressel, who was his boss at Ohio State for seven years, three times on Tuesday.

“He was probably going back and forth,” Burke said of Hazell. “That didn’t bother me.”

Burke’s consultants on the search were former Colts VP Bill Polian, current Colts general manager Ryan Grigson and Texans general manager Rick Smith. Burke calls the trio his “gang of three.”

“I know everybody was saying, ‘You’re waiting for Butch,’ ” Burke said. “(Hazell) was the guy at that point.”

• Before moving forward, Burke had to receive authorization from the Board of Trustees.

He assembled board chairman Keith Krach along with members Tom Spurgeon and Michael Berghoff. Acting university president Tim Sands was on the call, along with Cross and Reiter.

“We did a pretty good job of building the financial plan, showing them. … They had a pretty good idea,” Burke said. “They were really good. They grilled us pretty good. Why this candidate over this candidate? After about 30 minutes of cross-examination, ‘You’ve done your due diligence,’ which is what they should do.”

Burke told Sands, “We’re probably going to pull the trigger this afternoon. I felt like things were right.”

• Hazell received another phone call from Burke about 4:30 p.m. It was the job offer.

Hazell had an idea an offer from Purdue was coming, but “you’re never 100 percent certain until it comes.”

• Word began to leak that Hazell had accepted the job, but those rumors were false.

“That slowed him down,” Burke said. “He’s got to go backtrack with his players. That took another hour. He had to spend time with his wife and family. We worked through his adviser on the term sheet.”

• Hazell accepted the offer about 9 p.m.

• He informed Kent State’s coaching staff at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday and the players 15 minutes later of his decision to leave after two seasons. Hazell held a press conference at Kent State later that morning. He left Akron-Canton Airport at 4:21 p.m., and landed at Purdue 48 minutes later.

Hazell met with Purdue’s current assistant coaches and shook hands with the players at training table before the 7 p.m. press conference at Mackey Arena. He took questions for about 40 minutes and handled one-on-one interviews for another 10. He was later interviewed by BTN.

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Purdue’s plane took Hazell back to Ohio, landing at 9:27 p.m.

• Hazell spent Thursday and today focusing on Kent State, which is preparing for the Jan. 6 GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile, Ala. He’ll coach the Golden Flashes one last time.

He’ll drive to West Lafayette on Saturday and spend next week interviewing the current assistant coaches during the day. He’ll also travel to see the program’s current 2013 verbal commitments.

• After conducting four bowl practices at Kent State, he plans to be back in West Lafayette to look at houses Dec. 21-22.

“Take a day off for Christmas,” he said.

• Hazell will be at Purdue’s Jan. 1 bowl game against Oklahoma State in Dallas. He’ll fly with Kent State on Jan. 2 to Mobile, Ala., to continue preparations for its bowl matchup against Arkansas State.

He starts permanently at Purdue on Jan. 7.

• A buzz has already started about Hazell throughout the Purdue community.

“People are excited about the change, excited about him,” Burke said. “I didn’t think they would be this excited.”